The Apple Watch may soon be able to authenticate other operations apart from unlocking a Mac.
Sources speaking to 9To5Mac familiar with the development of macOS said that Apple is currently working on expanding the Apple Watch’s authentication feature in macOS, allowing users to authenticate other operations on their Mac apart from unlocking the system.
“According to sources familiar with the development of macOS, the next major version of the operating system will allow users to authenticate other operations on the Mac beyond just unlocking the machine with their watch,” reads the report.
Currently, the Apple Watch has the ability to unlock a Mac when worn by the user and positioned nearby the computer, saving users from entering their password manually each time. The Apple Watch can also be used to authenticate Apple Pay transactions on Macs.
While it’s still unclear exactly how far this could go, the report speculates that there’s no reason that it couldn’t extend to everything that users can currently use Touch ID for on newer MacBook models.
“It’s also likely that there will be a user interface on watchOS to authorize the process, similar to the current Apple Pay confirmation, since doing everything without user input would not be as secure,” concludes the report.
With the feature expected to debut in macOS 10.15, we’ll likely find out in a few weeks when Apple unveils the developer preview of the latest version of macOS at WWDC.
